Gaza peace ‘is no small challenge’, UK PM says, as Palestinians fear ceasefire may not hold – live updates

Tom Bennett
Reporting from Jerusalem

Image source, AFP via Getty Images

The families of Palestinian prisoners and detainees were shocked yesterday to see the state of their loved ones who returned from Israeli jails.

As prisoners exited a bus in Ramallah, they looked gaunt and pale, with some struggling to walk. I saw several men being propped up or carried by family members.

Testimony has begun to emerge of widespread mistreatment in Israeli prisons – including torture, deprivation of food, and beating.

The BBC cannot independently verify these claims. But Israel’s top court said last month that Palestinian prisoners were not being given adequate food. The BBC has also previously reported on Palestinians being tortured in Israeli detention.

The BBC has contacted the Israel Prison Service (IPS) for comment. Israel’s government has previously rejected accusations of widespread ill-treatment and torture of detainees, and insisted that it is “fully committed to international legal standards”.

Some of the allegations we’ve heard are of an increase in mistreatment in the days prior to the release of the prisoners.

Yesterday’s release involved about 250 Palestinian prisoners who had been convicted of crimes including murder and deadly attacks against Israelis – and about 1,700 detainees from Gaza who had been held by Israel without charge.

Outside the conference hall in Ramallah where many families gathered to receive their loved ones, Aya Shreiteh, 26, from the Palestinian Prisoners Club told me: “Their rights were violated in the most serious ways”.

“Most of the prisoners in the past year were subjected to deliberate starvation and exposure to illness,” she said. “Their bodies are frail from starvation.”